


Koiuta

by acchikocchi



Category: Tenimyu RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-27 21:58:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5065918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acchikocchi/pseuds/acchikocchi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hiroki's 33rd birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Koiuta

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scheherazade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scheherazade/gifts).



> You may have seen the other one coming, but I bet you didn't see this one. ^_^ お誕生日おめでとう!

The clock ticked over to midnight and Hiroki pulled both ends of the cracker, exploding it with a loud _pop_ and showering himself with confetti.

"Happy birthday! Yaaaaay!"

Araki tried to swat him on the head, missed, and hit Hiroki's shoulder with the heel of his palm. "You can't congratulate yourself on your own birthday."

"Says who?"

"Says 'try not to look any sadder and lonelier than you already are.'"

"Uh, you're the one here with me, duh." Hiroki rolled his eyes. "I think we both know which of us wins that contest. Anyway," he said, steamrolling whatever Araki might have countered with, "first order of 33-year-old business: where's my present?"

"What present."

Hiroki fixed him with a gimlet eye. "Don't play games with me. I'm old! Soon I'll be balding! I need presents to console me in my old age." Araki was fidgeting, which should have been Hiroki's first clue, but he was carried away. "Fine, I'll guess. And if I guess right you have to get me two. Okay, uh… how about a popcorn machine? No? A kayak?"

"There's a one hundred percent chance you would drown."

"Spoilsport. Chemistry set? Breadmaker? Fish tank? Personal biographer?"

"Maybe I got you a ball gag."

Hiroki waggled his eyebrows. "Freaky. Robot dog? Real dog? Desperate child actor pretending to be a—"

"I wrote you a song," Araki said.

Hiroki's mouth stopped of its accord. He blinked once, twice. "You… what?"

"A song." Araki's face was totally blank except his mouth was turned up like he wanted to laugh, which perversely was how Hiroki knew he was deathly serious. "It's wasted on you, obviously," Araki went on, "since you'll never be able to sing it yourself," so Hiroki socked him in the arm, or pretended like he was going to, since Araki's skin was delicate.

"Do you, uh…" 

Araki said, "Let me have your guitar."

Hiroki dug under the bed and pulled out the guitar. He strummed a chord, experimentally, and Araki winced, which must mean it was out of tune. He handed it over and Araki plucked first one string, then the next, fiddling with the pegs. It sounded a little better, maybe? Probably. Araki cleared his throat and said, "Here goes." Hiroki jumped to attention. " _Happy birthday to you, happy—_ "

This time Hiroki did hit him. "Objection! Plagiarism! Your joke's not even original!"

Araki was smiling outright now, laughing, out of pure embarrassment. Hiroki was used to that, too. He felt a wave of dumb, fond feeling swell up in his chest. Then without warning Araki ducked his head, and started to play.

*

He stopped singing four and a half minutes later, the final notes lingering in the air as he rested his fingers gently on the guitar strings.

A thick layer of silence coated the room. Hiroki didn't say anything, because he was going to get gross snot and tears everywhere if he tried, and Araki was going to hear, because no one had discovered how to sniffle without making a sound, because science was a useless lie.

"So. Yeah," Araki said, without looking up. "That's it, I guess. I don't know if you… I mean…" He glanced up quickly, then back down, then did a double take as his head came all the way up. He squinted. "Are you—"

"Not a word," Hiroki croaked. He gave up and sniffed loudly, scrubbing at his cheeks with his sleeves. "Not. One. Word."

Araki looked down, smile hovering around the corners of his mouth. He didn't say a word. He didn't have to.

*

_@zuky1003: To Araki Hirofumi-san. Thank you for these ten years. Here's to ten times ten more._


End file.
